PORTLAND – Lynn died on Feb. 9, 2024, after a short illness at St. Joseph’s Rehab in Portland. Daughter of Richard and Iona Coffin, Lynn grew up in Steuben and Lubec and was a graduate of the University of Maine at Machias.

Lynn taught eighth graders and was elected to be a local president of Maine Education Association. MEA then tasked Lynn with organizing the clerical, office, laboratory and technical workers employed by the University of Maine campuses. After successfully organizing the COLT workers Lynn became a UniServ director with MEA. Lynn also met, organized and married her husband Philip Spalding. The National Education Association hired Lynn to staff their Northeast Regional Office, and in time Lynn went on to direct this division of NEA. Lynn was then asked to join the national office of NEA as Director of their National Center for Innovation, and subsequently she became Director of NEA’s Teaching and Learning Department. While in DC Lynn served as president of the U Street Neighborhood Association and studied for advanced degrees at the University of Maryland. Lynn retired from NEA in 2008 and moved back to her beloved Maine. In retirement Lynn volunteered as editor of NEA’s retirement newsletter Outreach. Lynn was also fully engaged in restoring the Coffin family compound in Steuben, and in doing so preserving its working waterfront. 

For Lynn the world revolved around: Friends, reading, wine, cats, orchids, African violets, monarch butterflies, hummingbirds, and the NYT Sunday crossword. Lynn is survived by her husband Phil, Coffin cousins and her adopted Spalding clan.

Thanks are extended to St. Joseph’s Rehab, Beacon Hospice and 75 State Street.

Private family ceremonies are planned, and in lieu of all else Lynn would ask everyone to honor and support your local teachers.